Friday, January 04, 2013

By voting in a TEA Party US senator who would vote with the
likes of Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, Texans have given themselves a six-year
sentence of irrelevancy. This became crystal clear when Ted Cruz was
interviewed on CNN recently by Wolf Blitzer.

Blitzer sought to tutor the freshman senator on the art of
the deal when he announced that he would have voted with his TEA Party
associates in the Senate – voting against the Biden-McConnell compromise that
raised taxes on the rich but spared the middle class.

““But, remember,”
said Blitzer. “Tthe president was reelected. Harry Reid is the majority leader
-- you're in minority in the United States Senate. You got to deal with
reality. You can't just be -- you can't just be overly idealistic.”

Cruz’s response was essentially “oh yes I can.”

So in sending TEA Party Ted to the US Senate, Texans have sent
an intractable follower to the seat vacated by a moderate deal maker in Kay
Bailey. No one will go to Cruz for a vote exchange. No one will try to
compromise with him. No deals are possible with him.

But that’s the typical Texas conservative voter in a
nutshell these days. So Texas gets exactly what it deserves, a 6-year sentence
of irrelevance.